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Work on Penny Hill wind farm site reaches new milestone

September 17, 2012 | Penny Hill News

The construction of a new £21.9m wind farm in south Yorkshire has reached a new milestone with the start of concreting work at the site.

Banks Renewables, part of The Banks Group, began operations on the Penny Hill wind farm site, to the south east of Rotherham and the west of the junction of the M1 and M18, in July, and has kept to the planned schedule of work despite the dreadful summer weather.For a six-week period from Tuesday (18 September), concrete will be delivered and poured into the foundations of the turbine locations, with a view to work on one turbine site being completed every week.

The concrete is being supplied from Tarmac’s local depot at Aston-cum-Aughton, and around 50 deliveries will be required for each turbine location.

The timing of deliveries has been arranged to minimise any traffic disruption, and Banks has been working with the local councils, the project’s community liaison committee and people living in the immediate vicinity to ensure everyone is aware when deliveries along the approved transport route are scheduled to take place.

The turbines that have been specified for the scheme have the highest capacity of any ever used in a UK onshore wind farm, and are scheduled to be delivered to the site by early 2013.

Lewis Stokes, Banks’ community relations coordinator for the Penny Hill scheme, says: “Every effort has been made to minimise the impact on local traffic of our vehicle movements over the next six weeks, and we’re grateful for the help we’ve had from our community contacts in spreading the word about the work that’s set to take place.

“Construction work has progressed well so far, and we remain on schedule to see the turbines generating renewable energy in the first few months of next year.”

Around 30 jobs have been created directly on site through the construction of the six-turbine scheme, with a number of contracts also being awarded to local firms for the supply of materials and sub-contract works, as well as associated services such as catering and accommodation.

The Penny Hill wind farm will produce enough energy to meet the annual electricity consumption requirements of over 12,000 homes – or around ten per cent of all the homes in the Rotherham area – and will also prevent the release of around 20,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every year that would otherwise be discharged with the production of the same amount of energy using fossil fuel-powered electricity generation.

A related benefits fund worth around £20,000 every year – or approximately £500,000 across the 25-year lifespan of the wind farm – will enable Banks to deliver a range of community and environmental improvements in partnership with local people, and the first tranche of funding is scheduled to become available during the summer of 2013.

In addition to this, Banks has already made a further £50,000 investment to help establish a Warm Zone scheme across the Rotherham area, which is already delivering practical measures such as cavity wall insulation and loft insulation into local homes in order to help to alleviate fuel poverty and improve domestic energy efficiency on a district-wide basis.

Anyone looking for information on the concrete delivery schedule to the Penny Hill site should call 0844 209 1515 or email pennyhill@banksgroup.co.uk